Norwegian women are the world's most powerful, new study finds

Meagan Morris is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist living in New York City. In addition to SheKnows, Morris contributes to many publications including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, PopEater, NBC New York and Spinner. Follow he...

Big Think: Gender gap is still there

Big Think released their Global Index of Women's Power -- and the results are startling. Who nabbed first place? Here's a hint: It wasn't the United States. How did the other countries fare, in terms of gender equality, women's rights and percentage of women in positions of power? See below.

It's hard to imagine a world where women don't have the same rights as men.

Unfortunately, this is still true in many parts of the world, according to a new study by Big Think.

The Global Index of Women's Power finds a great division in women's rights around the world. In some countries, women aren't allowed access to basic things we take for granted, like education and personal choice. Still, in other countries, women hold high office and direct some of the world's most powerful corporations.

Which countries ranked highest and lowest?

The Global Index of Women's Power rates each country from zero-100, with zero being the worst and 100 the best. No country scored a perfect 100, but Norway came the closest.

Norway scored a 88.75 on the study, meaning that Norwegian women have more relative power than any other women in the world. The United States came in a disturbing 15th place with a score of 79.9.

On the bottom? Yemen, with a score of 24.02.

Knowledge is power

Big Think's goal for this study is to help bring awareness to the discrepancies in women's rights around the world. Saadia Zahidi, a director at the World Economic Forum and co-author of the Gender Gap report, said that empowering women is more than being equal -- it's also about improving our futures and the world's economic outlook.

"It really does come down to girls' education and investing in that because it has enormous multiplier effects," she said.